I've been practicing my skills!

I've been practicing my new skills on this ring. Its a 16 mm Star Ruby that I've had for about 18 months and have finally done something with it! I hope I've done it justice. Everything but the stone was fabricated by me out of sterling silver. I will have to keep this one but I have a few more of these stones so you will just have wait and see what I do with the other ones.

Have a great weekend.

H

Back from San Francisco!

So I'm back from San Francisco and I had a fabulous time! I have lots of picture your you to look at on Flickr. I made the earrings in the picture. I will give a detailed account in another post about how they were made. In the meantime I have lots of jewelry orders to catchup on, so go look at the pictures of the very beautiful city.

H

I have pictures!

View from my classroom window.

View of protesters of the something I don't know what - from my classroom window.

4 rings and 4 'sketches'. That's the practices pieces in the front.

All the rings I'm working on here are very sculptural in shape.

Round wire into square just from hammering.

Taper into upright taper.

Round into flat taper.

Sorry these aren't my best pictures. I'm trying not to take too much time with the camera because there is so much to learn. Now I have to get ready for more! Have a wonderful Sunday!

H

Having a great time!

Well I'm having a great time! But I still don't having pictures to show you! I have some equipment issues - like being able to download the ones I'm taken. Got a little rained on today but I'm in San Francisco so that's to be expected!
Its a little cooler then I planned for but all the walking is keeping me warm.

So about the class - today and tomorrow is forged rings. Wow! So much to learn and so much fun! I made 4 rings today. All in copper just for practice but tomorrow is all about the fine silver. All of these rings are forged and there is no soldering so lots of hammering. There are 11 people in the class so you can imagine the noise with all of us hammering away on metal.

Tomorrow is a continuation of what we did today and working on a few of the more difficult designs.

Monday and Tuesday are no class days for me so I will be able to explore the city and get some pictures. Its suppose to be sunny and warm - for San Francisco!

Well I'm so very tired so I'm off to bed. Have a wonderful Sunday!

H

Well I might as well tell you... (maybe Life is Funny Part 3)

So I'm sitting here in the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport waiting for a part to come in for the plane I should be on. (Say the following in a sarcastic voice) I love air travel! My plane was suppose to leave for San Francisco but they had us change planes and the one they gave us is having some issues. Well now I have issues! I didn't intend for this to be Life is Funny Part 3 but it seems its turning into that. I mean if we didn't laugh about these things we'd go crazy right? Right!

Why am I going to San Francisco you ask? Well I was going to post when I got there and include a picture of this beautiful city but since I'm here I'll tell you now and give you some pictures later.

I'm headed to SF for some training at the Revere Academy. I'm taking a class in Forged Rings, Quick Clasps and Finding (say that 3 times fast!) and Fabrication. I hope to be able to take pictures as i go through the classes and see the progress but I'm not sure yet if they will let me. I'll keep you posted.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

H

Life is funny (part 2)

Just lost 2 front teeth (Sam)

Okay so I don't have any stories to write up here but pictures of my family. I find them all very funny. So this is what I find funny this week!

Holly & Hayley (They are just not right!)

Jaxon is air born! He is dancing to the music that's playing.

His Aunt Heidi gave him this! Fantastic!

Jax is pretending that he's being attacked! NICE!

My father - maybe this is where we all get it from! That's a hat with a blonde wig attached to it!
Real pretty Dad!

She has grapes in her cheeks!

Well as you can see my family is crazy but so very funny! Have a wonderful funny day everyone!

H

Spring is just around the corner

This time of year I'm reminded of how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful place. We don't go through the seasons like the rest of the country does but I'm not one for snow so that's just fine with me.
Yesterday I was walking to pick my daughter up from school and I could smell the most wonderful scent all around me. I started looking around and then I looked up and saw where the scent was coming from. The orange tree! It was in full bloom. I love that scent. It reminded me that spring for us in Arizona is here and its beautiful! Its also just around the corner for the rest of the US.
Look around in nature today and see if you can see spring starting to show. Have a wonderful day!

H